THE NATIONAL UNION OF
JOURNALISTS OF UKRAINE
A journalist from one of the most popular Italian newspapers, La Stampa, Arianna Arcara, arrived on a business trip to the frontline Zaporizhzhia and the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Axes. She received protective equipment for the trip at the Zaporizhzhia Journalists’ Solidarity Center (JSC). Zaporizhzhia frontline journalist and fixer Oleksandr Pavlov, also wearing our protective equipment, accompanies her on the trip.
If we turn to statistics, we can note that every month the Zaporizhzhia JSC provides protective equipment to 8-10 journalists.
The rental of protective equipment, first-aid kits, sleeping bags, and, since January of this year, the Chuika drone detector, is in demand and popular with journalists who travel to prepare materials for frontline territories and combat zones; moreover, not only for local and Ukrainian media professionals, but also for our foreign colleagues.
Another area of coworking activity is the opportunity to work, if necessary, at a fully equipped workplace, which is very important today.
“Now, when most journalists work from home, and sometimes, if necessary, very quickly, even ‘on the go’, the importance of journalistic coworking at the JSC of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine (NUJU) is difficult to overestimate. After all, for operational work we need not only a computer, scanner or printer, but also a video or photo camera, light, reliable communication, and the Internet. And in conditions of constant blackouts, our coworking space stably provides this. Indeed, it has become a universal office for us,” says Slavko Tverdokhlib, a Mariupol television journalist who now lives and works in Zaporizhzhia. He is a frequent guest in the coworking, participates in training sessions, prepares materials, and meets with the heroes of his future video stories and publications. By the way, from 18 to 25 journalists work here every month.
The network of Journalists’ Solidarity Centers is an initiative of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, implemented in collaboration with the International and European Federations of Journalists and UNESCO, and with the support of the People of Japan. Our primary goal is to assist media professionals working in Ukraine during the war. The Centers are active in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Lviv, and Ivano-Frankivsk. The project is part of UNESCO’s broader efforts to support the Safety of Journalists and Freedom of Expression in Ukraine.
Contact the Zaporizhzhia JSC at 096 277 5352 (Nataliya Kuzmenko and Valentyna Manzhura, the coordinators of the Zaporizhia JSC). The Center’s address is 15 Sobornyi Avenue.
Valentyna Bystrova
Photos by Svitlana Khrystenko and Oleksandr Pavlov
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